How to Create Unique Halloween Pumpkin Displays

Halloween is a fun time of year for children of all ages, and costumes, haunted houses and pumpkin displays are all part of it. Roughly hewn geometric faces just aren't good enough for the creative decorator, so take your pumpkins to the next level by dressing them up in unique ways to get the spooky kudos you deserve. Paint them, carve them in a theme or go totally nontraditional with these unique ideas.

Things You'll Need

• Glitter
• White glue
• Black floral spray paint
• Carving tools
• Pumpkins
• Votive candles or glow sticks
• White acrylic paint
• Paintbrush
• Spooky pictures

Instructions

1. 

   Add some glitter. For a Halloween table display, get some smaller pumpkins in various smaller sizes and shapes and lay on the glitz. Simply paint on a thin coat of white glue with a paintbrush and shake on orange, pink or clear glitter. Use paper underneath to catch the excess, and allow to dry for an hour. Shake off any additional loose flakes and set the pumpkins out in a candlelit display--awesome and easy.

2. 

   Get out the black floral spray paint. For a spooky exterior pumpkin, carve up your traditional jack-o-lantern face, but paint the outside of the pumpkin black so that it virtually disappears into the background of your yard. Light them up with candles or glow sticks, and you'll get a disembodied face look for your yard or porch. Simply spray-paint (with black floral spray paint) your pumpkin first, allow to dry and then carve as usual.

3. Create a spooky haunted village. Use several medium to large pumpkins to create a haunted pumpkin display. Each pumpkin will be a different house with spooky warped windows carved in. Gather some haunted house images from children's books or online and use them as your guide. Carve each pumpkin as usual, but think of your gourd as a house, with the lid being the roof of the house and the sides being windows full of spiders and bats. Draw your pattern first and carve away. This is great for a porch or table display.

4. 

   Go with a theme. Use multiple pumpkins, but think of them as one continued design. For example, you may want to do a graveyard theme, so draw out a couple of tombstones, a fence with a ghost behind it and whatever else you see fit for a traditional scary graveyard. Spread your design out over three or four pumpkins and shave away the top layers of the pumpkin, leaving some "meat" behind to give it a muted glow.

5. 

   Create a white-and-light theme. For an outdoor party, take smaller pumpkins and paint them white with watered-down acrylic paints, or spend a little more and buy "white lumina" pumpkins whose skins are white. Use cookie cutters to carve a repeated simple design on the pumpkins to create soft holiday lighting. For nontraditional pumpkins, use a simple small circle cutter or stars for a festive look. The more pumpkins you use, the bigger the effect, so buy generously for your special event.

Tips & Warnings

• Always draw your images, faces or patterns on your pumpkin first. Once you cut, you're committed.

• Get the kids in on the fancy stuff by allowing them to paint the pumpkins black or white.

• Don't carve too far ahead of your event. Pumpkins will last longer in cooler temperatures, but one warm day can be their undoing.

Resources

• Pumpkin Carving Patterns